US Expels Syrian Diplomats - Dangerous Desperation in the Air

The United States has officially told the Syrian government to immediately suspend its diplomatic and consular missions in the country, and ordered its diplomats to leave the country if they are not US citizens.

"We have determined it is unacceptable for individuals appointed by that regime to conduct diplomatic or consular operations in the United States," US special envoy for Syria, Daniel Rubinstein, said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The move is suspected by many to be in retaliation for the permanent reversal of fortunes for US-backed militants operating inside of Syria, and perhaps the prelude to an act of Western aggression in response to other geopolitical loses elsewhere, including Crimea.

West Arrives at a Dangerous Turning Point

It was a turbulent week for Western hegemons. First the teetering regime they thrust into power in Kiev, Ukraine was exposed globally as led by armed Neo-Nazis. Next, the people of Crimea fled en masse via a referendum that overwhelming chose for the strategic peninsula to join with Russia rather than be left subjected to the Western-backed fascists occupying Kiev.

The West's response was impotent sanctions quickly brushed off by both the Russians and Ukrainians they targeted, with military posturing by both NATO and their new regime in Kiev also appearing feckless and altogether desperate.

And finally, in Syria, a complete reversal of fortunes for the Western-orchestrated bloodbath, now in its third year, culminated in Syrian forces retaking the pivotal city of Yabroud, northwest of Damascus and very near the Lebanese-Syrian border.

The retaking of Yabroud seemed perhaps a greater symbolic victory than a strategic one - and strategically, it was a very important victory. It is yet another step in stemming the flow of foreign militants, weapons, and cash into Syria, effectively isolating militants within the country to be sweep away by the Syrian Arab Army. Symbolically, it represents the irreversible momentum gained by the Syrian government and its security forces in retaking the country and restoring order within and along its borders.

In light of this reversal, one that has been ongoing since the beginning of 2013, Saudi Arabia has now apparently abandoned or at the least reduced its extraterritorial involvement in Syria, meaning Western attempts to geopolitically and economically reorder Syria while stripping neighboring Iran and Lebanon of an important ally have been all but effectively ended.

For the West, who has enjoyed global hegemony for so long, the slipping away of its power and prestige - all based on the illusion of its strength - leaves the world facing a dangerously desperate entity willing to do anything to reestablish that illusion. The sitting heads of state across the West, including, and perhaps most symbolically, US President Barack Obama, endlessly creating "red lines" the world boldly walks across exemplifies just how diminished that illusion is.

An example must be made, and with the expulsion of Syrian diplomats from the US, that example may be Syria.